Shoulder and ditch grading machine



1952 F. L. SATTERTHWAITE 2,615,254

SHOULDER AND DITCH GRADING MACHINE 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 Filed June 21, 1948 .0 4 7 :w mm m r% i7 .0 5 Y .8 m N m r Oct. 28, 1952 F. SATTERTHWAITE 2,615,254

SHOULDER AND DITCH GRADING MACHINE 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 Filed June 21, 1948 R W M I Few/vex A. Snrrzz rnwm 2-.

Patented Oct. 28, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,615,264 SHOULDER AND nrron GRADING MACHINE Fenner L. Satterthwaite, Kinston, N. 0. Application June 21, 1948, Serial No. 34,288 1 Claim. (01. 371 08) The present invention relates to shoulder grading attachments for standard road grader equip-v ment.

One object of my invention is to provide a road grader attachment which will permit ditch grading to be done at a normal distance from the paved highway with all of the wheels of the road grader in contact with the paved highway.

Another object of my invention is to provide a shoulder attachment for road graders which will enable the operator to grade the shoulder and the ditch to any angles desired without the necessity of driving the road grader off of the pavement. 7 v

' A further object of my invention is to provide a shoulder attachment for a road grader which may be adjusted to al normal working angles without the necessity for-the operator to leave his normal position on the road grader.

A still further object of my invention is.

provide a shoulder attachemnt for road graders which is substantial in construction, durable in operation, and which may be attached and "detached with a minimum of effort. I g

A further object of my invention i-s'to provide a road grader shoulder attachment which requires a minimum of modification of the basic road grader construction to adapt th grader for the connection of the ditching attachment.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent upon reference to the annexed specification and the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a standard road grader with my attachment in position to grade a ditch, I

Fig.2 is a close-up perspective view of the shoulder grading blade and its attachmentto the boom,

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the shoulder grading blade showing its adjustments,

Fig. 4 is a front elevation showingthe attachment of the boom to the standard road grader blade,

Fig. 5 is a front elevation showing the details of the counterweighting system,

Fig. 6 is a top plan view and partial cross,- section of one of the counterweights,

Fig. 7 is a front elevation of one of the counterweight connecting hooks, and

Fig. 8 is a modified form of connection between the vertical standard and the horizontal boom.

In referring to the drawings in which lik numerals indicate like parts throughout the several'figures, the reference numeral Ill indicates generally a road grader of standard design with The road grader I0 is provided with front wheels II, a frame I2, a body I3, and a scraperblade I4. The scraper blade I4 is adapted to be angu-. larly adjusted in twoplanes in th conventional manner. The road grader III is adapted to be driven by a conventional internal combustion engine (not shown) transmitting its power by means of a standard transmission, drive shaft, and rear power wheels, (also not shown) 'i' In order to grade ditches and shoulders along a roadway using a. standard grading machine above described, it is necessary that the machine be positioned over the 'work to be done in suchia' manner that the wheels of the grader would also be upon the shoulder or in the ditch being out. There are several reasons Why this mode of operation is inefficient. In the first place, the ground of the shoulder or ditch is normally soft and a great deal more power is necessary, with a resultant increase in gasoline consumption, to produce the same speed of operation as can be had on hard surface roads. In the second place, the heavy road grader machinery creates ruts in the work being don which must then be filled by hand or finish graded by manual labor. This mode of operation then can be seen to be not only more costly but also much slower than operation on hard surfaces.

Applicant, in considering th inefficiencies above described, has concluded that the only possible eflicient way to grade shoulders and ditches in soft material is to extend the scraper blade sufficiently to one side to permit the road grader to remain on hard ground while the scraper blade is operating in the soft roadside material.

Referring now to one embodiment of my invention as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 4, the scraper blade, I4 has the replaceable cutting edge (not shown) removed. A cylindrical boom support I5 is attached to the blade I4 and is secured in place i by means of yoke elements I6 which are engaged over the top edge of the scraper blade I4 and are bolted at their lower edges to on .of the bolt holes H by means of bolts I8. A boom I9 is positioned in the boom sup-port I5 and a locking pin 20 is used to secure the boom I9 and the boom support I 5 together, by use of one of the holes 2| in the boom support [5 and one of the holes 22 in the boom IS. The locking pin 20 is secured in locked position by means of a cotter key 23. It will be obvious that the relative position of the boom I9 with respect to the boom support 5 may be adjusted by the use of other holes 21 and 22. .The outer end of the boom I9 is bifurcated, as illustrated in Fig. 2, providing a slot 24. The arms 2,5 formedbythe slotllare drilled to receive'aa pair of bolts 26 extending transversely through the slot 24. An adjustable standard support 21 are locked in position on the standard 29 by means of set screws 3|. The collars 30 will prevent vertical displacement of the standard 29 with respect to the standard support 21 but will permit the standard 29 to rotate on its axis within the standard support 21.

The standard 29 is bifurcated at its lower end by a slot 32 providing a pair of downwardly extending arms 33. A semi-circular blade adjust-.

ment plate 34 is pivotally mounted within the slot 32 by means of a bolt 35 passing through both of the arms 33.

An arcuately arranged series of holes 35 are provided on the upper portion of the plate 34. A locking pin 31 is mounted on one of'the arms 33 of the standard 29 by means of a bracket 38 and extends through both of the arms 33 and passes through one of the arcuately positioned holes 35 in the plate 34 in order to lock the plate 34 against relative rotation with respect to the standard 29. The pin 31 is biased to locking position by means of a spring 39 and the outer end of the pin 31 is provided with an eye 48 to facilitate the attachment of a handline 4| by means of which the pin 31 may be retracted to permit angular adjustment of the plate 34 with respect to the standard 29. The handline 4| is trained over a pulley at 68 and extends to a hand lever 59 in reach of the operator.

A tubular crossbar 42 is provided on its upper surface with a pair of hinge eyes -33 to receive a hinge pin 45. The lower end of the plate 34 is provided with a pair of hinge eyes 45 by means of which the crossbar 42 is hingedly secured to the plate 34, the hinge pin 44 extending through both pairs of the hingeeyes 43 and 45. A pair of arcuate scraper blade support arms 46 are secured by welding or any other suitable means near theextremities of the cross arm 42 and extend downwardly therefrom. .A scraper blade 41 is pivotally secured to the support arms 48 by means of a bolt 48 attached to a bracket 49' integral with the blade and is secured against rotation with respect to said support arms by means of a bolt 49 extending through any one of openings 50 in the bracket 49'. The scraper blade 41 is of a conventiona1 character having a removable and replaceable scraper blade edge 5| bolted along the lower edge of the blade 41. The blade 41 is provided with a short angularly extending wing portion 52. The wing portion 52 permits the operator of the device to grade two walls of the ditch simultaneously as illustrated in Fig. l.

A semi-circular tow plate 53 is welded or otherwise suitably secured to the cross arm 42 to provide an attachment for transmitting draft from the forward portion of the road grader ID to the scraper blade 41. The plate 53 is provided with an arcuately positioned series of openings 54 around the forward edge thereof. A tow pole 55 is bifurcated at one end providing a slot 56 and a pair of arms 51. The tow pole 55 is pivotally attached to the tow plate 53 by means of a bolt 58 passing through the arms 51 and the inner portion of the tow plate 53. A locking pin 59 is the standard 29 '4 mounted on the tow pole 55 by means of bracket so that the locking pin 59 may pass through openings in the arms 51 and through one of the openings 54 in the tow plate 53 to lock the tow pole 55 to the tow plate 53 to prevent relative rotation therebetween. The tow pole 55 is provided at its opposite end with a connecting ring 6|. A tow chain 82 is secured to the connecting ring 8|- at one end and at its opposite end to a hook 63 mounted on the forward portion of the road grader ID. The tow chain 82 takes up the stress on the scraper blade 41 and the boom l9 and transmits this stress to the forward portion of the road grader Ill.

The locking pin 59 is spring biased into locking position and is adapted to be withdrawn to permit rotation of the tow pole 55 with respect to the tow plate 53 by means of a bellcrank lever 54 which is pivotally mounted on the tow pole 55 by means of a pair of upstanding arms 65. The upper end of bellorank lever 84 is provided with an eye 66 to receive a handline 51. The handline 51 is trained over a pulley at 10 and'extends to a hand lever 1| in reach of the operator. The locking pins 31 and 59 may be unlocked by the operator without leaving his normal position on the road grader In so that by moving the boom Is, he may adjust the angular positions and reset the locking pins 31 and 59 to maintain the new angular position.

The boom |9 is provided near its outer end with an eye 12 to receive a counterweight cable'13. A bracket 14 is secured to the body |3 of the road rader I0 and is provided at it upper end with a swivel pulley 15 over which the counterweight cable 13 is adapted to be trained. A counterweight support 16 is secured to the body [3 of the road grader I0 by means of bolts 11 and is positioned substantially under the swivel pulley 15. The counterweight support 15 is provided witha pair of upstanding guide pins 18. A plurality of weights 19 are provided with a pair of vertically extended openings 80 and are adapted to be positioned on the guide pins 18. The weights 19 are further provided with a pair of headed pins 8| which extend longitudinally from opposite sides with the headed portion outermost. The weights 19are adapted to be interconnected by means of connectors 82 which are provided with an'eye 83 at the upper end thereof and a hook 84 at the lower end thereof. The eye 83 is adapted to be positioned over one of the headed pins 8| and the hook 84 is adapted to be positioned under the headed pin 8| of the next lower weight 19 so that the operator may adjust the weight by adding or removing weights 19 at will. The uppermost weight 19 is provided with a ring 85 to receive the inner end of the counterweight cable 13. Obviously, if additional weights are necessary, they may be added by shortening the counterweight cable 13 and removing the top weight 19.

In a modified form of standard support 21 as illustrated in Fig. 8, the collars 38 of the preferred form of the invention are eliminated and a series of holes 88 are provided in the standard 29 and the standard support 21 is provided with a hole which is adapted to mate with holes 86 in to permit a drift pin 81 to be passed therethrough. The drift-pin 81 is locked in position by means of a cotter key 88.

In the use and operation of my invention, a standard road grader H1 is adapted to facilitate the connection of the ditch attachment by having the counterweight support 16 and guides 18,

the swivel pulley I5, bracket 14, the tow chain hook 63, the pulleys 68 and I0 and the hand levers 69 and H, all connected in position to receive my attachment. These members in no way detract from or affect the operation of the road grader ID in the normal manner for which it was built. in order to connect my attachmentto the road grader II] which has been especially equipped as described above, it is necessary to remove the cutting edge of the scraper blade l4 so that the bolt holes thereof may be utilized to secure the yokes l6 thereto. The remaining steps in connecting my attachment comprise hooking the tow chain 62 to the hook 63, training the handlines 4| and 61 over the pulleys 68 and 10, and connecting them to the hand levers 69 and H and training the counterweight cable 73 over the pulley 75 and connecting a sufficient number of counterweights together. Vertical adjustments of the shoulder scraper blade 41 may be made by adjusting the angle of the normal scraping blade M of the road grader [0 with relation to the horizontal which will elevate or depress the outer end of boom [9 as desired. The angle formed by the boom I9 with respect to the longitudinal direction of travel of the road grader 10 may be adjusted by adjusting the same angle of the normal scraper blade [4. These adjustments may be made in the normal manner without the necessity of the operator leaving his position on the road grader Ill. The full adjustments for every angle which are provided permit the scraper blade 41 to be positioned to cut any normal grade used for either the shoulder or the ditch in normal United States road grading operations.

It is obvious that my invention permits all power wheels of the road grader 10 to remain on the 6 hard surface while grading the softer material on the shoulders and the ditch.

' While I have illustrated and described one form of my invention, it should be clearly understood that I may resort to modifications within the scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

A road grader including a normally adjustable grader blade, a boom adjustably secured to said grader blade whereby the effective length of said boom may be varied, a standard, means securing the standard to the outer end of the boom, said means including means for permitting the standard to be adjusted vertically and means for permtting the standard to be rotated on a longitudinal axis about the end of the boom, a scraper blade, means connecting the scraper blade to the lower end of the standard including means for permitting the scraper blade to be rotated on a longitudinal axis about the lower end of the standard.

FENNER L. SATTERTHWAITE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Clinkscales, Jr Feb. 9, 1943 

